Parliament fails to halt voter apathy as turnout at 20-year low

THE European Parliament failed to halt the decline in voter interest as the elections registered its lowest ever turnout over the past 20 years at 43%.

The lowest was 17% in Slovakia and the highest 91% in Luxembourg where voting is mandatory.

Libertas, the party founded by businessman Declan Ganley, failed to make an impression appearing to win just one seat on early returns despite a reported e30 million campaign in 20 of the 27 member states.

The low turnout has favoured more right-wing candidates and the big winners are the centre right European Peoples Party (EPP) of which Fine Gael is a member.

It has increased its dominance of the Parliament winning up to 272 of the 736 seats but is expected to turn further to the right, thanks to an increase in conservatives from several countries, including Britain.

The Socialists are predicted to remain the second largest group but with a reduced 160 seats while the Liberals, which Fianna Fáil has just joined will remain in third place with 80 MEPs, down considerably from the 100 they had.

The Independence-Democracy group to which South MEP Kathy Sinnott and the British euro-sceptic UKIP belong have lost seats and with an expected 17 MEPs will not have enough to form a group in the parliament.

The biggest winner in the overall results so far are opposition parties in national governments.

But in some of the bigger countries – Germany, France, Italy and Poland – the ruling parties topped the poll.

In France President Nicholas Sarkozy’s ruling UMP party was in front. The Socialists were followed by the national front of far right Jean Marie Le Pen and by the Ecologists party.

One of Mr Ganley’s strongest supporters, Philippe De Villiers, who allied his party to Libertas got just 5% of the vote, enough to see Viscount De Villiers keep his seat but not enough for his two party members, who lost theirs.

Italy’s controversial prime minister, Silvio Berlosconi, managed to keep his party in the lead, adding to the number of the EPP in the parliament.

But in Spain, the Socialist government was edged out to second giving way to the centre right.

Anti-EU and anti immigrant parties made important gains in several countries.

The biggest gain however was for the Freedom Party in the Netherlands that won 17% of the vote, putting them second to the ruling Christian Democrats.

In Britain itself predicted wins for the far right British National Party were slim last night as its leader Nick Griffin said he did not expect to be elected.

UKIP appeared to be holding onto its seats.